A dive bomber is a tactical bomber aircraft that attacks its target by performing a fast dives in order to provide greater accuracy for the aerial bomb it drops. Diving directly towards the target before releasing gives the bomb a faster overall speed and a greater terminal momentum, straightens the bomb's free-fall trajectory, and allows the pilot to keep visual contact throughout the bomb run. This allows more focused attacks on point targets and ships, which were difficult to attack with conventional level bombers even en masse.
Dive bombers are typically light bombers or fighter-bombers with great aerial agility, and were especially effective against vehicles during the early World War II when Nazi Germany's combined arms doctrine integrated the Luftwaffe into the Blitzkrieg. After World War II, the rise of precision-guided munitions and improved anti-aircraft defences—both fixed gunnery positions and fighter interception—led to a fundamental change in dive bombing. New weapons, such as rockets, allowed for better accuracy from smaller dive angles and from greater distances. They could be fitted to almost any aircraft, including fighters, improving their effectiveness without the inherent vulnerabilities of dive bombers, which needed air superiority to operate effectively.